US Airways traffic rose 3.1% in October

TessStynes

US Airways Group Inc.'s
LCC, +0.00%
consolidated traffic rose 3.1% in October from a year earlier as the airline reported domestic traffic growth offset declines in its Atlantic and Latin business segments.

The carrier, which also operates US Airways Shuttle, has been among the most optimistic in the airline industry about the strength of travel demand. After reducing capacity last year to keep costs in check, the carrier has been making more seats available in recent months.

Capacity edged up 0.2% last month, while load factor, or the percentage of seats filled, improved to 85.8% from 83.4%.

Passenger revenue per available seat mile--a closely measure of performance in the airline industry--rose 3%.

US Airways, which expects to provide an estimate of the financial impact of Hurricane Sandy in its November traffic release, said hurricane-related cancellations led to a completion factor of 95.8% and on-time performance of 83.2%.

US Airways' President Scott Kirby said that on Oct. 29 and Oct. 30, "flight operations were halted at its Philadelphia hub, Washington D.C., Boston, New York City and other East Coast airports, resulting in nearly 4,200 total flight cancellations."

During October, mainline traffic was up 3% while traffic at US Airways Express grew 6.7% last month.

On a consolidated basis, domestic traffic rose 5.2% offsetting declines in traffic at its Atlantic and Latin segments of 3.5% each.

Shares closed Friday at $12.53 and were inactive premarket. The stock has more than doubled this year.

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